Small business invests for the digital future

The small and medi­um busi­ness (SMB) sec­tor has gen­er­al­ly tak­en a util­i­tar­i­an or func­tion­al approach to tech­nol­o­gy, seek­ing effi­cien­cy rather than a com­pet­i­tive edge. But the rise of the dig­i­tal econ­o­my and the dra­mat­ic shift in how busi­ness­es engage with dig­i­tal-savvy con­sumers has upped the tech­nol­o­gy ante for SMBs.

As busi­ness focus moves from ‘cus­tomer ser­vice’ to the high­er plane of ‘cus­tomer expe­ri­ence’ – which increas­ing­ly means across mul­ti­ple chan­nels and touch points – SMBs are respond­ing to both the chal­lenge and the oppor­tu­ni­ty to trans­form their busi­ness­es for the new dig­i­tal mar­ket­place.

“Used well, dig­i­tal ser­vices and con­nect­ed prod­ucts enabled by IoT have the poten­tial to thor­ough­ly change the rela­tion­ship between con­sumers, the prod­uct and the brand. They can boost con­sumer engage­ment to deliv­er sub­stan­tial val­ue for both con­sumers and busi­ness­es,” she says.

This impe­tus for SMBs to take deci­sive dig­i­tal steps is reflect­ed in the find­ings of IDC’s FutureScape: World­wide SMB 2017 Pre­dic­tions report, which fore­cast a record $US557 bil­lion in SMB IT spend­ing in 2017, a 3.9% increase over last year. Most notably, that spend­ing will con­tin­ue a shift from hard­ware to soft­ware and solu­tions.

Among IDC’s predictions:

• Cloud ser­vice bro­ker­ing (CSB) will be key for mid-mar­ket con­sump­tion of cloud ser­vices, lead­ing almost two-thirds of glob­al SMBs to choose CSB part­ners by 2019–20.

• Mid-mar­ket firms’ mobile invest­ments will rise by up to 50% in 2017.

• Mid-mar­ket firms will spend 30% of their IT bud­gets on mobile projects in 2017.

• By the end of 2019, 70% of mid-mar­ket firms will imple­ment cog­ni­tive/AI-enabled enter­prise soft­ware and intel­li­gent assis­tants.

• 40% of SMBs will be using a big data and ana­lyt­ics solu­tion by 2018.

An analy­sis by KPMG Enter­prise of mid-mar­ket com­pa­nies list­ed on the Aus­tralian Secu­ri­ties Exchange (ASX) found that com­pa­nies invest­ing in intan­gi­ble assets such as dig­i­tal tech­nol­o­gy are grow­ing their rev­enue at a faster rate than those which are not (+4% growth com­pared with -2%). Prof­itabil­i­ty is also high­er in these com­pa­nies.

KPMG con­clud­ed that ‘access­ing new hori­zons through tech­nol­o­gy is a fan­tas­tic oppor­tu­ni­ty for the mid-mar­ket’. This is par­tic­u­lar­ly sig­nif­i­cant, giv­en that the mid-mar­ket sec­tor rep­re­sents more than 65% of the Aus­tralian econ­o­my.

Gen Y impact in Asia

Lau, who is now based in Shen­zhen, lead­ing the cre­ation of a new fin­tech busi­ness for Chi­nese inter­net giant Ten­cent, says coun­tries such as Chi­na, Indone­sia and India “are real­ly push­ing the bound­aries and inno­vat­ing the most” when it comes to dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion.

“Hav­ing vision­ary lead­ers, as many Asian com­pa­nies have, helps tremen­dous­ly. Many of these are founder-owned com­pa­nies. They’re first-gen­er­a­tion entre­pre­neurs and they have the skills and com­mit­ment to dri­ve through dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion.”

The tran­si­tion to a 21st Cen­tu­ry dig­i­tal busi­ness requires vision, com­mit­ment and invest­ment from SMBs. For­tu­nate­ly, the IDC report shows that many busi­ness­es are now embark­ing on this vital dig­i­tal jour­ney.

Adobe Asia Pacific

Adobe is changing the world through digital experiences. We're here to bring you the latest and greatest creative inspiration, insight and industry news. To find out more information about Adobe, visit www.adobe.com